Your Controller Just Resigned: A 30-Day Action Plan for Hiring Managers

When a controller resigns, the clock starts right away. In the notice period, you need to protect the close, capture what your controller knows, and start a search. This plan covers the first 30 days step by step, so one departure doesn’t turn into a quarter of missed deadlines and cleanup.

Days 1–3: Stabilize the Situation

The first few days are about control, not hiring. Before you post a job or call a recruiter, get clear on the facts and make sure nothing slips.

Confirm the Timeline and the Terms

Start with a direct conversation. Confirm the controller’s last day, whether they would extend it, and how much of their remaining time can go to transition work instead of routine tasks. If they’re leaving on good terms, ask whether they’d take a few paid hours of follow-up questions after they go. Many will agree, and that one agreement can save your team weeks of guesswork.

Tell the Right People in the Right Order

Your CFO or CEO should hear first, then the accounting team. Keep the team message short and steady: who is leaving, when, and who to go to in the meantime. Then plan outreach to your auditors, banking contacts, and outside tax advisors, since the controller is often their main point of contact.

Review Access and Controls

A controller usually holds system administrator rights, bank signing authority, and approval limits that no one else has. List every system, account, and approval workflow tied to their name. You don’t need to shut anything off today. You do need a plan to reassign authority by their last day so segregation of duties stays intact.

Days 1–7: Lock In Interim Coverage

The controller’s calendar doesn’t pause for a resignation. Pull together everything due in the next 60 to 90 days: month-end and quarter-end closes, bank covenant reporting, audit fieldwork, tax filings, and board or lender packages. That list tells you how much coverage you need and how fast.

Most companies choose one of three paths:

• Stretch an internal leader. An accounting manager or assistant controller takes over the close with added support. This works when the bench is strong and the calendar is light.
• Have the CFO step in. This is fine for a short gap, but it pulls your top finance leader away from strategy when the team needs direction most.
• Bring in an interim or contract controller. This is the safest choice when a close, audit, or year-end is coming fast, or when the team is already lean.

Be honest about capacity. If your team was already showing signs your finance team is understaffed, piling on a controller’s workload can lead to errors and a second resignation. If the departure lands near year-end, the thinking behind these staffing strategies for tax season and year-end close applies: plan coverage before the crunch, not during it.

Days 1–14: Capture What Only Your Controller Knows

Every controller carries knowledge that never made it into a manual. Some lives in spreadsheets on their desktop, and some lives only in their head. Knowledge capture has to start on day one, because when the notice period ends, that information leaves with them.

Build a Structured Handoff Document

Ask the controller to document the close the way they actually run it, not the way it looks on paper. The handoff should cover:

• The month-end close checklist, with owners and due dates
• Recurring journal entries, accruals, and the logic behind them
• Account reconciliations and where the supporting files live
• Manual workarounds, custom reports, and spreadsheet models
• Open audit requests and any unresolved issues

Record the Walkthroughs

Documents only go so far. Schedule screen-share sessions where the controller walks a teammate through the close, consolidations, and complex reconciliations, and record them. A recorded walkthrough is often more useful to the next hire than a thick binder.

Map the Relationships

List every outside contact the controller manages, including auditors, bankers, software vendors, and tax preparers. Note who they talk to, how often, and about what. Then set up warm introductions to whoever is covering in the interim.

Use the Exit Interview to Shape the Search

Ask why they’re leaving and what they would change about the role. Their answers may point to workload, reporting lines, pay, or limited growth. Those insights help you avoid hiring a replacement into the same problems.

Days 8–21: Define the Role You Actually Need

It’s tempting to repost the old job description and move fast. A resignation is one of the few natural moments to ask whether the role still fits the business.

Revisit the Scope

Look at what the job requires today, not what it looked like when you last filled it. If your company has grown, added entities, or taken on investors, the role may have outgrown its title. Some companies find they need a more strategic leader, so it’s worth reviewing how to know when you need a controller vs. a CFO before you lock in the search.

Decide Between Promoting and Searching

If an assistant controller or accounting manager is close to ready, an internal move may make sense. Weigh the tradeoffs, including who backfills their seat. This breakdown of internal promotion vs. external hire walks through how to make that call.

Set Compensation Before You Post

The salary you paid your last controller may no longer be competitive. Benchmark the role and use compensation bands to set a range before you talk to candidates, so you aren’t negotiating against yourself later.

Write a Job Description That Sells the Role

A strong posting explains the scope, reporting line, systems, and what success looks like in year one. Review what to include in a job description for accounting and finance roles to make sure yours appeals to experienced candidates who aren’t actively looking.

Days 15–30: Launch the Search

With the role defined, it’s time to go to market. The goal by day 30 is a live search with qualified candidates in the pipeline.

Choose Your Search Approach

Posting the job and screening in-house can work for staff-level roles, but it rarely works as well for a controller. The best candidates are usually employed, busy, and not browsing job boards. A partner that specializes in accounting and finance executive search can reach passive candidates, keep the search confidential when needed, and deliver a vetted shortlist faster.

Build Your Interview Plan Now

Decide who will interview, in what order, and what each person is evaluating. For a controller, test technical depth, judgment under deadline pressure, and how they communicate with non-finance leaders. Agreeing on this up front keeps the process moving once candidates arrive.

Get Ready for the Offer Stage

Strong controller candidates often have more than one option. Line up approvals, pay flexibility, and a start-date plan now so you can make a job offer that actually gets accepted without delays. Slow approvals are one of the most common reasons a finalist accepts somewhere else.

After Day 30: Plan for the Next Departure

By the end of the month, the pressure should start to ease. Use that breathing room to look at what the vacancy exposed. The true cost of a vacant role goes well beyond salary savings, including delayed closes, overtime, audit risk, and burnout. Building a real plan for succession planning for finance leadership roles means the next resignation is a manageable transition instead of an emergency.

Start Your Controller Search With Burchard & Associates

Burchard & Associates helps St. Louis companies find accounting and finance leaders who can step in and lead from day one. Contact our team to talk through your timeline and start your search.